Bix

Wasn't the crux of Dave's argument for a while that MMA fighters/matches were winning wrestling awards by a large margin or something?

I will say that I do find the match to be overrated (I prefer the Houston street fight and the no DQ match on one of the Barnett comps), though the crowd is awesome.

Are there examples of this happening in the past? UFC fighters have a clause in their contracts that allows for them to be fired if they lose a fight. It's more of a general out if they want to cut someone, and they used it to release Ivan Salavery after he lost a horribly boring fight to Nate Marquardt by decision.

Well, both. Sounded like he had new info.

So...what's the fall from grace of CM Punk?

Smackdown: The usual suspects, pretty much. I also dig the Boogeyman, as he has sooo much charisma and he's protected enough that his weaknesses are covered up very well. Raw: Cena has vastly improved in the ring and I really enjoy watching him. His biggest fault right now is that the overly scripted & cutesy promos don't suit him at all. His strength is serious Dusty-ish promos. Johnny Nitro is improving every week. When MNM was split up in May, the brilliance of Joey Matthews was exposed, but Nitro's been steadily improving and it's gotten faster since Fall or thereabouts. He has a great look & some good charisma, takes great bumps, works his showoffy highspots into his cocky act, etc. Umaga is great as a throwback that's treated seriously and booked well. ITA Re: Maria. ECW: Punk, sometimes the vampires, and RVD/Sabu in trainwreck mode. Otherwise eh. TNA: Joe is kinda blah there and SoCal Val looks like she has fetal alcohol syndrome to the degree it creeps me out. ROH: Nigel McGuinness is the guy. He has everything down tremendously well at this point.

Pride 32 did a hell of a lot better than I would've expected. Are there numbers around for the tape delayed PPVs?

There are special licensed versions that are more expensive that can be shown in bars.

It's just Canada. I wish we had it.

Via MediaWeek. Very interesting...

Probably '91. Everything aside from Mountie-Koko (which I've never seen and isn't on the comm tape) is at least very good or entertaining with a good angle to go along with it.

TNA is amusing.

That too.

His insult of choice is "fhehggit," though he doesn't swear at all otherwise. He refuses to say "ass," telling people he saw the movie "Jack-A-S-S" and telling Michael Shane he was "going to kick [his] fhehggit...head!" Apparently in his ROH match with CIMA, his exclamation of pain was "OW! FHEHGGIT!" I've been told that he also doesn't like blacks or Jews much, either.

Posted here if only because I know it will amuse Loss. AJ was on WOL (in weird kayfabe mode for the first few minutes - "I really could've beaten Rhino tonight," etc). They opened it up to a caller who asked how he felt about being so liked by the gay community. Styles was aghast - the "THE GAY COMMUNITY?" disgusted reply alluded to above. "Because you're so good looking," continued the caller, or w/ something to that effect, before Dave cut him off. "Get him out of here," said AJ and Dave agreed with something like, "Next caller," and it was a little awkward. But it got more awkward later when another caller said he was a fan, but why did AJ care about people's sexual orientation. That didn't get very far either before Styles went, like, pffft, and Dave made another snide comment (typical, "Oh, God...") before moving on. At least the first was undoubtedly a prank and you could justify the responses both times with non-homophobic rationalizations but they'd be pretty weak. It was just kinda awkward. But that was it. Oh, DM asked AJ if his 20-mo-old son could talk yet, and the joke wrote itself in everyone's mind and now yours too

They had really good syndication for the current stuff besides the Legends shows on ESPN.

Aww c'mon, World Class had good TV coverage. The culmination of this angle was a lot of fun, as Lee Scott decides to get really pissed off after Jack turns on him and challenges Jack to a match the next week. Then Lee Scott is killed forever in that blowoff.

This week, Bryan & Vinny compared Universo & Chucho to Great Khali (while mentioning me by name), saying that they're so hideously bad that they're awesome. Free show if anyone wants to check it out... Also, Meltzer stopped praising Heavy Metal when he was basically ordered to go back to wrestling school.

KENTA-Danielson was pretty amazing live and would be my pick.